Syracuse Coaching Search Ends with Familiar Face

Gerry McNamara will become the next head coach of the Syracuse Orange Men’s Basketball program, according to my sources.

He returns to the Orange after spending two seasons as the head coach of the Siena Saints Men's Basketball program inside the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). The year prior to him taking over at Siena, the Saints were 4-28. In his first season with the Saints, the team improved to 14-18 and this past season, they rose to 23-12, including winning the MAAC Tournament which gave them an automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

In the NCAA Tournament, they were pitted against the top overall seed, the Duke Blue Devils, and pushed Duke throughout the game, losing by a mere two possessions in the 16-seed versus 1-seed matchup. Blue Devils’ Head Coach Jon Scheyer said repeatedly that McNamara out-coached him in that game.

Returning to Syracuse where he was a player and an assistant coach, McNamara will become just the school’s third head coach in men’s basketball in the last 51 years, with Jim Boeheim having been at the helm for 47 years and Adrian Autry for three.

Syracuse University was in talks with Bryan Hodgson from the University of South Florida as well as Josh Schertz of Saint Louis University prior to naming McNamara as their new leader.